


The Cherry Blossoms Bloom After the April Showers

by RaRaYuu



Series: A Sakura Tree, a Caged Bird, and a Paper Fan [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hinata and Sakura friendship, POV Haruno Sakura, Tenten and Hinata and Sakura friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 06:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19847377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaRaYuu/pseuds/RaRaYuu
Summary: A bit different from my usual works, but I'm really proud of this! (I actually edited it!!! And proofread it!!!!! What a concept!!!!)Sister story to Dreaming Bird (Fly From Your Cage) (Go check it out please!!!! It makes the most sense if you read both stories!!!!!)This is the second part of a Naruto AU idea that's been floating around in my head for quite some time, in which a small event in both Hinata's and Sakura's lives changes everything.





	The Cherry Blossoms Bloom After the April Showers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pulling My Weight](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6737008) by [itsthechocopuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsthechocopuff/pseuds/itsthechocopuff). 



> A bit different from my usual works, but I'm really proud of this! (I actually edited it!!! And proofread it!!!!! What a concept!!!!)
> 
> Sister story to Dreaming Bird (Fly From Your Cage) (Go check it out please!!!! It makes the most sense if you read both stories!!!!!)
> 
> This is the second part of a Naruto AU idea that's been floating around in my head for quite some time, in which a small event in both Hinata's and Sakura's lives changes everything.

The first thing she remembered is happiness. 

She loved her parents and she loved herself. She loved the color red and she loved reading all of the books she can (and it was starting to get to the point where her parents began checking out chuunin level books for her) but most of all, she loved ninja.

Unlike many other ninja families, the Harunos weren’t a clan of any sort, and despite being their only daughter, Mebuki and Hizashi never put any sort of pressure on Sakura to become a ninja of any sort. 

No, for that had come all by itself. 

By age six, she had proclaimed that she wanted to be the bestest ninja out there, and her parents had smiled and enrolled her in the Academy.

~~~

Within two weeks, that had all changed. 

“T-they said that my forehead was big! T-T-That it was larger than all of Konoha!” She sobbed as her mother attempted to console her. 

“They’re just jealous of your abilities, honey.” 

“I don’t wanna be a ninja anymore!”

~~~

It was another day at the Academy, and she had been picking flowers when the same three girls came over.

“Hey forehead, whatcha trying ta do?” One of them (Ami she believed) taunted her. “With that big thing, you can never be able to become a ninja! Everyone will spot you from a mile away!”

They started laughing, and Sakura started crying, dropping the bunch of flowers she had picked onto the ground. 

“Wow, she’s picking flowers.” Another girl commented. “And she’s crying already! What a baby. Only babies pick flowers; we’re big girls so we play ninja like the big girls do.”

She stomped on the flowers, crushing their colorful petals until they were like crumpled pieces of paper, and the sight of this only made Sakura cry harder.

“Hey! Back off ya twits!”

It was a girl with her brown hair tightly wrapped in twin buns, and the girls immediately stopped with their taunting.

“W-Who’s that?!”

“She’s the clanless one! She can’t do anything to us!”

“If ya don’t back away from her, then I’ll make you do so myself!” The girl yelled, and with that, the bullies had run away.

“Hey. Ya doin’ alright?” The girl asked Sakura, kneeling down besides her, before she suddenly noticed the crushed flowers on the ground. “If ya want me to, I can pick some more flowers with ya?” 

Sakura nodded, and the girl smiled.

“I’m Tenten by the way! What’s your name?”

~~~

They had hung out every day during recess after that, where they mostly talked about societal standards on kunoichi, and the different kinds of weapons, and on the three Sannin, and oh by the way which one is your favorite? 

(“Mine’s Tsunade.” Tenten had told her and Sakura decided that if Tenten wanted to be just like Tsunade, then she would, too.)

Sakura was smart, sure, but some of this stuff was way beyond her knowledge, and she began reading about different weapon types and seals in order to keep talking with Tenten because she was her first friend and that sort of thing was important to Sakura.

Sometimes, while Tenten was talking, Sakura would notice this tiny little girl hiding amongst the trees on the playground; always close enough to hear their conversations but never close enough to join in, and Sakura’s innate curiosity (The same one that drove her to start bartering for jounin level scrolls) peaked up, and she decided that she would figure out who this girl was like a true ninja would. 

~~~

The next week is comprised of figuring out who this girl was (Hyuuga Hinata; heiress to the Hyuuga clan), what her deal with Tenten was (Sakura suspected it was similar to her but she wasn’t sure), and her stalking habits. 

It wasn’t until a little bit later that Sakura mustered up the courage to speak to her.

“Hey, aren’t you the Hyuuga heiress?” Sakura mentally berated herself for being so brash about it, especially since the girl in question had fallen back out of shock. 

“I…ummmmm….I-I-“

“Oh oh sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” Sakura kept rambling on about how sorry she was for scaring her and potentially ruining her hiding spot when she was interrupted with-

“I-It’s fine. M-My name’s Hyuuga Hinata.” Then, the girl stiffly stuck out her hand, and after a moment’s hesitation, Sakura took it. 

“I’m Haruno Sakura, and I know that my forehead’s big!”

~~~

Sakura had been right in her initial thoughts about Hinata’s view on Tenten, and they had swiftly bonded over being shy and bookish in nature. 

~~~

Tenten finally noticed them two months after Hinata and Sakura had met each other. 

“Hey! What’cha doin’ in the bushes over there! The ticks will getcha and then you’ll get lyme disease and that’s super bad!” Tenten yelled. “I don’ mind an audience but I’d like my audience to be alive!” And with that, the two younger girls scrambled out of the bushes and joined Tenten in the sunlight.

It was two days later that Tenten offered to train with them.

“No one wants to train with me. They’re always like ‘You’re jus’ a clanless orphan, ya’ can’t become a shinobi like that!’ or ‘Girls are weaker ‘nd we wanna get stronger so bug off!’ But since you’re always here watchin’ me then I’d suppose that we can train together ‘n stuff.”

Sakura looked over at Hinata before decisively nodding.

~~~

In another universe, Sakura grows up under Ino’s wing, not Tenten’s. She falls in love with a boy who considers her a nuisance at best and a liability at worse, and when he leaves; she chases him no matter the odds. 

In this universe, she grows up under the bright warmth of a girl who believes in her strength, and alongside a classmate who blossoms alongside her. And instead of chasing after the shadow of a boy, she chases after the figure of a young girl with twin buns and pockets full of storage seals.

**Author's Note:**

> A little passion project of mine for the past couple of weeks, and something completely out of my zone! 
> 
> Some notes about the story:
> 
> 1\. Tenten's meant to have a bit of an accent. Which one specifically? -\\_(-__-)_/- This was pretty difficult to do because I wanted to make it obvious that she had a slight accent, but also make it legible, and also not have it come across as a Southern accent. I'm thinking more cowboy-ish? (But seriously; imagine the entire story of Naruto but in the Wild West.)
> 
> (I'm gonna write that now.)
> 
> 2\. Since Tenten's family isn't talked about at all, I'm assuming that she's an orphan. Like Kishimoto, if you wanted her to have a family, you probs should've mentioned it somewhere.
> 
> 3\. Concerning Sakura's family: Their ranks aren't mentioned, so I made them Chuunin. In the anime, there's several 'eternal genin' who never move up in the ranks, and my personal belief is that if they were mocked for being genin for years, then if Sakura's parents were genin for years, they probably would've had a really sucky reputation in Konoha. However, they also didn't teach their daughter any useful shit in canon, so they're like low rank chuunin right now. 
> 
> 3\. Concerning Hanabi: She's a baby rn. In Part 1, she's meant to be around 7 years old, and Hinata's 12 to 13, so there's a 5 year gap between them. Kishimoto never specified when Academy students start, so I'm presuming it's around 6 years old. Thus Hinata's 6, Sakura's 6, and Tenten's 7. She isn't mentioned here because rn Hanabi would be learning how to walk and shit, so her talents wouldn't be showing up for a bit.
> 
> Also, this work was heavily inspired by Pulling My Weight (Should be linked somewhere nearby; if not just look it up on AO3; it's the first result when I did it.) It's suuuuuuuuuuuuuch a good story and it's partly the reason why I've been going down this rabbit hole of BAMF Sakura fics, which in turn made me read all of the BAMF Hinata stories currently on here. 
> 
> Quick note: I haven't watched all of Naruto (Currently on the Naruto fights Tsunade part), so if there's plot points I'm not building up properly or whatnot, then please forgive me. Also if the characters seem OOC, I'm also extremely sorry! It was really difficult writing these three for some reason


End file.
